What would be your reaction if you log in to your Facebook account and pops out a window saying that you need to pay? I will say a few curse words and bid adieu to the social network for good. Or perhaps rally in with the like minded who already have guerilla groups against the move.
This has been quite what’s happening on the social network; people spreading the word by making groups stating that they hate paying for using Facebook and others with similar thoughts continue to join these. I am not sure where do they come up with the numbers and ideas? Nick reports of a group on Facebook that states it needs 300,000 users to prevent Facebook to prevent the social network from charging $14.99/month to use Facebook. Boy, that is going to be very expensive for all the spammy apps, notifications that it keeps flooding the inboxes with.
I just had an interesting discussion on Twitter with a few friends where I asked how many of them would be willing to actually pay to use Facebook? It was interesting as many of them thought they wont mind paying a tiny registration fee: from $1 a year to $1 a month and thought it was something really affordable. Now that does sound very low for the bulk of purposes we use Facebook for. But I beg to differ. Why? Well why should I pay for a network that is actively utilizing activity of each user it has and the emphasis it lays on breaking the social norm of privacy. The social network has grown exponentially without charging any user a penny, it has been predicted that the social network might generate $1 Billion in the current year.
Where has it actually charged anyone? Other than that, I don’t think I would ever pay any service to monitor and use my own data to build a business on and offers nothing but socializing for me. If people think that a certain price is worth the value it offers and Facebook should generate its rightful share of revenue, what I think is simply the fact that if revenue is what it needs, it has to work on other methods rather charging for the service. Interestingly it already is as the social network empowers itself with more independent advertising, just to name one.
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